Mac Davis - Acting Career

Acting Career

From 1974 to 1976, Davis had his own television variety show on NBC, The Mac Davis Show. He made his feature film debut opposite Nick Nolte in the football film, North Dallas Forty (1979) and as a result, was listed as one of 12 "Promising New Actors of 1979" by Screen World magazine.

Davis also starred in the 1981 comedy film Cheaper To Keep Her, playing a divorced detective whose work for a neurotic feminist attorney, tracking down husbands who were failing to pay alimony to their ex-wives, funded his own alimony payments to his own ex-wife. The film received mainly negative reviews and was not a box-office success.

In 1980, Davis hosted an episode of The Muppet Show. He there performed "Baby, Don't Get Hooked On Me" and "It's Hard To Be Humble."

In 1983, he appeared in The Sting II, a sequel to The Sting, as Jake Hooker, a younger relative of Johnny Hooker, who was played by Robert Redford in The Sting.

Davis played Will Rogers in the Broadway production of The Will Rogers Follies.

In 1998, Davis starred in the sports comedy Possums, which went on to debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

Davis served as the balladeer for the 2000 telefilm The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood, replacing Don Williams, who had served the part in 1997's The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!, and Waylon Jennings, who narrated the original Dukes of Hazzard television show. Davis was the first balladeer to appear on-screen to welcome the audience and provide exposition.

Davis was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000. For his contribution to the recording industry, he was awarded a star symbol on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.

In 2001, Davis played a fellow karaoke competitor to Jon Gries's Sunny Holiday in the Polish brother's film Jackpot. In the film, there was a dispute between Sunny's manager, acted out by Garrett Morris, and Davis's character about what song he should sing. The manager suggested Davis's "Baby, Don't Get Hooked On Me," which Davis's character claimed just was not him.

From 1999 to 2004, Davis provided the character voices of Sheriff Buford (two episodes) and a talk radio host called "the Sports Jock" (two episodes), on the animated series King of the Hill.

Davis also guest-starred briefly in the 8 Simple Rules episode "Let's Keep Going, Part II" in April 2004, and also had a recurring role as Rodney Carrington's father-in-law in the sitcom Rodney.